1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an object acquiring system and acquiring method, and more particularly, to an object acquiring system and acquiring method for monitoring an object and tracking the moving trace of the object.
2. Description of Related Art
Many people tend to carelessly place an object (e.g., a key) in any place, and later forget where the object was located when they want to use it. The time spent in acquiring the object often causes inconvenience in their daily life.
To easily locate or acquire an object, an object acquiring device with short-range communication protocol (e.g., Bluetooth) may be disposed on the object in advance, such that when a user sends a short-range wireless signal to the object acquiring device via an electronic device (e.g., a smartphone), the object acquiring device will respond to the signal, allowing the user to locate the object. However, once the object acquiring device is out of the communication range with the electronic device, the user will not be able to get access to, and control, the object acquiring device, thus making the object acquiring device unusable. Hence, such short-range based object acquiring device is just applicable to an object acquiring scenario in locating a fixed object.
It is common for a pet owner to carry a pet when he/she goes out for a walk or an outing. A pet, once being out, is prone to be intrigued by the outside environment, especially a spacious and open place (e.g., a park or roadway), and may act out in an unexpected way, a behavior that could cause the pet to escape from the pet owner's observation, so increasing the chance the pet strays or gets lost. Likewise, when a family member goes out with a child or an elderly person with dementia, it is likely that the child or the elderly person walks spontaneously and escapes from the family member's observation. Once straying or getting lost, the child or elderly person may not clearly describe themselves for assistance, thereby making object acquiring more difficult.
To prevent the object, such as a pet, a child, or an elderly person, from straying, a monitoring device equipped with a positioning (e.g., GPS) and long-range communication component (e.g., GSM) may be disposed on the object in advance. When the object strays or gets lost, the owner or the family member uses a smartphone to receive a location signal, transmitted by the monitoring device, indicating the location of the object. The monitoring device is configured to monitor the object's location in a long range; however, the installation cost of GPS and GSM is high, and related communication modules for GPS and GSM are power consuming. Hence, the battery of the monitoring device may quickly run out, causing the monitoring device to fail to keep monitoring on the object.
In view of the foregoing, the present disclosure provides an object acquiring system and acquiring method, which keeps monitoring on the object (e.g., a child, an elderly person, a pet, or a car) to lower the chance the object strays or gets lost, and quickly locates the object by tracking the moving trace of the object when the object strays or gets lost.